Radio daily (Oct-Dec 1949)

12 RADIO DAILY: Thursday. October 27, 1949 Beville Cites Non-Home Listening, Also AM Audience In TV Dwellings (Continued from P3ge 1) home itself," i.e., that "radio listening has become essentially a personal rather than a family habit." He backed his contentions of a continued growth of radio listening, both within and without the home, with quotations from a half-dozen surveys, including one by NBC in Washington which showed that 12 per cent of the population listened to a car radio on a typical weekday on an average of 50 minutes per day. He also cited a Pulse survey made for WOR last May showing that, between 7 & 9 a.m. and 5 & 7 p.m., from 35 per cent to 41 per cent of cars had radio sets in use. This New York automobile audience, he pointed out represented a 14 per cent bonus over the home audience in each of the two periods. Compares With Newspapers After discussing the various surveys on out of home listening Beville asked the luncheon gathering: "What medium, aside from economical radio, could dismiss audiences of this magnitude as 'bonus' circulation? Consider what would happen to the circulation of the New York newspaoers if the reading which takes place on subways and commuter trains were not included I don't think radio can afford tc throw away the audience represented by people who listen while driving to work anymore than I would expect the newspapers to throw away the subway reader. And do you think that the 'juicy' figure? produced by the Magazine Audience Group for the Nation's weeklies could possibly be obtained if reading in barber shops, beauty parlors, on trains and in other people's homes were eliminated? More and more America becomes a nation on wheels. We who live in New York are prone to forget that one-third of America's cars, more than 11 million automobiles, are used daily by workers going to and from work. As the figure grows, the radio listening potential grows. . . . Outlines Reasons "Here are the reasons why this portion of radio's audience can no longer be overlooked by any collector or user of radio statistics: "1. Radio listening has become essentially a personal rather than a family habit. "2. With increasing mobility of sets and inexpensive receivers, ability to listen prevails virtually everywhere today. "3. Broadcasters can no longer afford to give away, as bonus, such substantial listening — by seeing that it is counted we will get credit for it (and may be able to charge for it.) "4. In the period of intensive media competition which I am certain lies just ahead, the aural medium must put its best foot forward. "5. A substantial portion of outside-the-home listening will be unaffected by the advent of television. Automobile radio listening and much of the listening in public places and business places will be completely immune from television competition. "6. Outside listening has increased by leaps and bounds since the war and will continue to do so. As time goes on such listening will become a greater share of all listening. . . . Criticizes Research Technique "Certainly this (out-of-home listening) is the most serious omission in the measurement of radio audiences today. On the other hand, it s not the only omission. Most radio research techniques have failed to keep up with the development of radio listening habits within the home itself. In my estimation there is still considerable improvement to be made in the manner all of our present research techniques are employed to obtain home listening. Those who pay for audience measurement, those who are measured, and the measurers themselves are all slow to change their ways of thinking about the radio audience. As radio has moved out of the parlor into the bedroom, the den, the kitchen and other rooms throughout the house, techniques which were primarily developed to measure family listening based on a single home receiver in the living room have proved to be inadequate to meet the changing situation. "Here is just one example. A special study by Hooper revealed that a rating for a certain juvenile program more than doubled when additional questions were asked to find out from the telephone respondent whether or not listening was taking place on other sets within the home." Attacks "Tele Fanatics" Glibness In discussing multiple-set homes, Beville attacked what he described as "the glibness with which television fanatics write off radio." All rating services report a "healthy amount" of radio listening in TV homes, he continued, adding "I believe there is need for a full measurement of listening away from the room where the TV set is located in order to truly evaluate today's aural audience." He expressed the belief that tele vision and radio audience measurement must operate side by side in the future when radio and TV sets are spread throughout the house. "Television has started off with a tremendous impact on the family circle. The TV set brings the family once more back into the living room and picks up approximately where the radio receiver with the horntype loudspeaker left off. Nevertheless, I think it is obviously unrealistic to believe that the entire family will gather as a unit hour after hour, night after night before the home television set. As certain members of the family tire of watching someone else's choice of program they will abandon the family circle in favor of an activity which they can control to their own liking. As this development occurs, radio listening will come back into its own, side by side with television viewing." WNJR Revises Programs Newark, N. J. — WNJR has announced a revision of its program structure to provide more variety in its musical programs and to establish better continuity in its program setup. Major changes have been made in the nine to noon and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. programs. Transit Radio Adds 128 New Sponsors (Continued from Page 1) bus and street car radio medium include Swift & Co. Vigoro, Fanny Farmer Candy Shops and Ford Dealers Association, through J. Walter Thompson Company; Musterole, through Erwin, Wasey; Bond Stores, through Neff-Rogow; BristolMyers' I p a n a , through Doherty, Clifford & Shenfield; Fehr Baking Co. through Ruthrauff & Ryan; Miles Laboratories, through the Wade Agency; Mrs. Filbert's Mayonnaise through Sullivan, Stauffer, Colwell & Bayles, and Feltman & Curme Shoes, direct. In addition, J. Walter Thompson has renewed its Swift & Co. campaign for Jewel Shortening; McCann-Erickson has ordered a 26week renewal for Hyde Park Beer; and Arthur Cohn & Associates has renewed for Baker Brush Co. Household Finance Corp. through LeVally, Inc., and Miles Laboratories through the Wade Agency, have added additional Transit Radio markets. "Success stories and definite increases in consumer sales as measured and verified by store-audit services rendered by Transit Radio stations without extra cost to sponsors have been principally responsible for these renewals, expanded schedules and new advertisers," Pellegrin said. Thanks to the 13th Annual School Broadcast Conference for Selecting WEW as the Prize Winning Commercial Station in the United States for the Programs "Our Missouri Constitution" and "Science For You." WEW WEW-FM Owned and Operated by St. Louis University Represented by John Pearson Co. Nicholas Pagliara, General Manager Uv'8a£tUncte